Marketing your bar can be its own full-time job…but, unfortunately, you don’t have an unlimited amount of time! You can’t skip out on marketing if you want your bar to succeed…but you do have to be smart about it. You might have limited time, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few tricks you can use to make the most of it. Here are a few tips you can use to save time while marketing your bar.

1. Make use of your breaks.

You might think marketing needs its own block of time in your daily or weekly schedule. Not so! Just because you can’t devote a full day to marketing doesn’t mean you can’t do it. Work it in during your breaks. If you only have a few minutes to spare, use that time to schedule some social media posts or respond to tweets from your customers.

2. Be a curator.

Part of marketing your bar involves showing your customers that you know what you’re talking about. You can do this by curating content, not just creating it. Retweet articles that are relevant to your neighborhood. Post information about new and exciting drinks on your Facebook page. Include links to great articles on your blog or website.

3. Schedule, schedule, schedule.

Social media marketing can take up a lot of time. That’s where scheduling comes in! Services like Hootsuite help you plan ahead and schedule your social media posts.

4. Outsource it.

Remember, you don’t have to do all of your marketing work yourself! Outsourcing your work to an expert will save you tons of time.

5. Use pictures.

No time to write great content? Not sure what to share on social media? A picture is worth a thousand words, and it takes way less time to create! A picture that shows how great your food looks is some of the best marketing you can use.

6. Interact.

Interacting with customers takes very little time (especially online), but it’s a great way to build your business. Retweeting customers only takes a second, but it can help engage your followers.

7. Keep it simple.

Do you really need to use every available marketing platform? Do you need to be on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, and Pinterest, or can you limit it to just a few social media sites? Do you need to advertise in every available medium, or can you just stick with social media and your local newspaper? Figure out what works for you and remember that you don’t have to do everything!

8. Time yourself.

Marketing has a way of taking over your whole schedule…if you let it. You might consider setting aside a small block of time to work on your marketing efforts. That way, you can devote the rest of your time to actually running your bar!

9. Talk to your customers.

Speaking to your customers is one of the fastest ways to figure out what’s working–and what’s not–with your marketing. You can ask customers how they heard about your bar, why they decided to come in, or what sorts of deals and promotions they’d like to see.

10. Create a plan.

Yes, making a marketing plan might take a little more time at first. But in the long haul, following your plan will take way less time than floundering, backtracking, and making marketing mistakes.

Marketing can take up a lot of your time, but it doesn’t have to. Try using some of these time saving marketing tips!

Trusted by thousands of bars and restaurants in North America since 1984, Buzztime integrates trivia, card, sports games and live events with innovative tablet technology. While we don't take ourselves too seriously, this is pretty serious business.